On some myths concerning the St. Petersburg (Leningrad) school of phonology

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of some widespread ideas about the theory and history of the St. Petersburg (Leningrad) phonological school, created by one of the founders of phonology Lev Shcherba. In accordance with these ideas, a certain “antimorphematism” and “physicalism” is attributed to the St. Petersburg school, allegedly distinguishing it from the Moscow, Prague and other phonological schools, which does not allow us to consider it in the full sense of the word phonological. The origin and formation of these myths are connected with the peculiarities of the development of Russian phonology in the 20th century and were determined by the competition between the Leningrad and Moscow schools, which became most acute during the phonological discussions in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The main role in the establishment of this mythology belongs to representatives of the Moscow school, Alexander Reformatsky and Mikhail Panov. Based on the analysis of the works of representatives of different schools, the article shows the inconsistency of this mythology and attempts to explain why, despite repeated criticism, such unsubstantiated claims about the St. Petersburg school still remain and continue to be replicated both in textbooks and scientific papers on phonology and the history of linguistics, including recent works. In addition, based on the analysis of the theory and research practice of phonological schools, it is shown that the accusations of “physicalism” and “antimorphematism”, usually addressed to the St. Petersburg school, can be addressed to the Moscow and Prague phonological schools with greater justification.